Unbearable people

There’s this kind of people who drives me mad…Have you ever met anybody who is always right? Who knows everything? who travelled everywhere?; who has been sicker than anybody else in the world?; who has been to the best restaurants and drunk the most delicious wines? It really annoys me this kind of attitude; I can’t stand it.
What is most infuriating is that they don’t consider anybody else but themselves. They think they are a special kind of “God” taht they are always certain and, of course, theirs is the one and only possible truth.

MY OWN “CHICKEN BREASTS WITH OPORTO’S WINE SAUSE”!

Well, well… I tried this recipe with some modifications (I’m sorry Estef), which I’m gonna tell you.

First, I changed mushrooms because I don’t like it… I wanted to put apples, but my mother stopped me just in time! In the end, I used carrots, a good choice. The second change is more important: I changed Oporto’s wine (I don’t have it at home) for a mixture between “mistela” and mellow wine… The last change (and less important) is that I’ve used chicken legs because they are tastier.

We can say that I’ve done “Catalan chicken legs”.

I tried it on Sunday night, but I didn’t do a photo because my sister and I were extremely hungry. But I need to say that it was extremely tasty.

STUFFED TOMATOES

Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 onion
• 1 garlic
• 1 carrot
• 1 marrow
• 4-6 tomatoes (1-2 per person)
• 250g minced meat (for 4 tomatoes)
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Rosemary
• Goat cheese
• Bread
• Salad

First of all, empty the tomatoes carefully using a spoon. Pour a bit of salt inside them and, for the moment, put aside both the tomatoes and their contents.

Now chop up the onion, the garlic, the carrot and the marrow.

Warm a deep frying pan. Once the oil is hot, throw in the onion and the garlic. Wait for a few minutes and then add the carrot and the marrow. Blend the ingredients and wait until they begin to brown.

Add the minced meat to the pan. Try to separate the pieces of meat with a spatula and mix. After 5 minutes, throw in the contents of the tomatoes. Mix again and evaporate all the liquid (20-25 minutes).

Pour some salt, black pepper and rosemary to the mixture and stir. Let the meat to brown a bit.

Now stuff the tomatoes with the meat and put them into the pre-warmed oven (150 ºC). If you like, put some grated cheese on the top of the tomatoes. At the same time, you can place in the oven some goat cheese on bread toasts.

The stuffed tomatoes will be ready in 5-10 minutes.

Finally, serve the tomatoes with some salad. It’s a good idea to put some honey on the cheese.

Enjoy!

I DID IT!!!!

Here is my experiment!

I cooked the Carrot Cake following all the Mire's recipe instructions.

In miy opinion it's very tasty, but it breaks easily, which is a negative point for me, because it's difficult to serve.

Basque Style Hake
Ingredients:
-2/3 pieces of hake per person
-flour
-olive oil
-2/3 gloves of garlic
-parsley
-one tin of asparagus
-boiled egg
-clams
Preparation:
1.-salt the hake and slightly cover each piece with flour
2.-pour olive oil in a casseroleand place the hake while the oil is cold. The oil should cover the hake.
3.-ground the cloves of garlic and the pearsley together and clean the mortar with the asparagus' water. Add it to the hake.
4.-Move the casserole frequently so that the hake will not paste to the bottom of it. During 15/20 minutes it should go "chup-chup"
5.-Place the asparagus on the hake and let everything go "chup-chup" for five more minutes. Don't forget to move the casserole!
You may decorate this delicious dish with clams and pieces of boiled egg.
Hope you enjoy it!

Risotto with Mushrooms:

Ingredients:

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Garlic (3 cloves)

Onions (1)

Arborio rice (300g)

Mushrooms (200

White wine

Parmesan

Parsley

Vegetable stock

Preparation: (for four persons)

First of all, we have to decide the type of mushrooms. This decision will depend on the season, the cost and obviously the flavour. We can choose also if we want them fresh or dehydrated (if we choose them dehydrated is important to keep the water used to hydrate them and to add with the vegetable stock). In this occasion, I choose “camagrocs” which in my opinion is a delicious mushroom.

Once we decided the mushrooms we put a frying pan on the heat with one tablespoon of butter (depending on the type of mushroom we will chop it or not). When the butter is melted we cook the mushrooms over a high heat and quickly. We don’t want to cook them a lot, just brown them. Then, we keep them back. In the same frying pan we add some more butter and we sauté the minced garlic cloves and the fined sliced onion over a low heat. When the garlic and the onion are cooked we add a half glass of white wine. We increase the heat and we blend vigorously it all trying to avoid burning it. Meanwhile we heat the vegetable stock in a saucepan and keep it warm until the end. When the alcohol is evaporated we turn down the heat and we add the rice (from my own experience we can use normal rice or “bomba” but the Italians recommend Arborio or Vialone Nano). At this time starts one of the clues of the risotto, we don’t have to stop stirring until the risotto is done. We stir the rice during two minutes and then we will add the hot vegetable stock in a continuous way during the entire cook while the rice absorbs it. We taste it and we throw salt and pepper according to our taste. Normally the rice needs 17 minutes cooking time (don’t forget to keep stirring the rice all the time!). About five minutes before the rice is done we add some grated parmesan, the mushrooms and the chopped parsley. We still stirring until the rise is al dente and that’s it! We cover the risotto for two minutes.

Enjoy your meal!!

In the photo I serve the risotto with cod and a fried asparagus

Cuttlefish with meatballs

Ingredients

Some olive oil
2 Cloves of garlic
2 Onions
Salt
Pinions
Minced meat or meatballs (number depending on how big they are)
700 gr. Cuttlefish
1 or 2 Tomatoes
A glass of white or red wine
Some water
Rice
… (and whatever you have in the fridge: frozen peas, carrots…)

Preparation

Firstly, you should prepare the mince meat, but… my butcher makes some wonderful meatballs, so I usually buy them already done. So you just have to grate the tomatoes, and cut the onions in thin slices on the chopping board.

As you have already done the meatballs, fry them in a pot. Be quick turning them over because we wouldn’t like to burn them. And don’t worry, later they will make well inside with the cuttlefish. When they will be brown, retire them from the pot.

Fry the onions in slices in the same oil you have just fried the meatballs. I also like to fry, just a little bit, the pinions and the tomatoes. Meanwhile, you clean and cut the cuttlefish in cubes.

Stir the onion frequently to prevent burning with a table spoon. When the onion is getting brown, put the cuttlefish and add the glass of wine and some water. I also sprinkle some white pepper. You should be careful with the salt, because the cuttlefish could give a salty taste. You should blend often in the beginning to be sure is well distributed.

I usually serve it with white rice and, just in case you have some unexpected visitors, you can boil some eggs, cut them in four pieces and use them in the presentations of the plate. It mixes right with it and feed lot.

Note: I have no idea about times. Do whatever you think depending on tasting.